Conventionally, a portable electronic device has a housing that encases the various electrical components of the portable electronic device. Often, the portable electronic device has a display arrangement that includes various layers. The various layers usually include at least a display technology layer that provides a display screen, and may additionally include a sensing arrangement (e.g., touch sensors or touch screen) and/or a cover window disposed over the display technology layer. The cover window can be a plastic or glass cover that provides a protective outer surface that protects the display arrangement. The cover window can form part of an outer surface for the housing of the portable electronic device. Conventionally, the cover window is partially covered with ink to provide masking of regions of the cover window not associated with the display screen. The cover window, for example, can be partially covered on an inner surface of the cover window to provide a masking effect so that internal components of the housing for the portable electronic device are not visible through the masked portion of the cover window. However, providing the masking on the inner surface often requires a non-trivial build-up of ink. For example, for a suitable visual appearance of the masking effect, a series of multiple layers of ink may be used. Unfortunately, however, such a stacking of layers of ink can impede the ability of the inner surface of the cover window to fit closely adjacent (e.g., directly adjacent) the display technology layer, which causes a decrease in effective optical performance for the display screen.